Recovery Time

[gawain]

I have been working out on my own for quite some time, but I recently hired a new trainer to get me to the next level. I should state right out that I'm 42 years old.

OMG...he is kicking my butt, but I am finding it is taking me *forever* to recover. We'll do arms on Monday and they still hurt on Friday. I'm tired all of the time. It's a great hour of ass beating.

I use BIOTEST Surge after my workouts, I take Omega-3's, I need to know what else I could be doing to get my body to recover a bit faster. I eat enough, I sleep enough, and I cut back on my drinking almost entirely (down to a glass a wine every other night).

Is this just how it is now as we age?

[chodan9]

how much is enough to eat?
and how much is enough sleep?

are you taking enough time off between workouts for your level of fitness?

[gawain]

how much is enough to eat?
and how much is enough sleep?

are you taking enough time off between workouts for your level of fitness?

- Eating between 1800-2000 for leaning out. 40/30/30 ratio (BIOTEST is additional)
- Lifting M/W/F 60mins each session
- intervals on T/Th/Sa for about 30 mins

Get about 7 hours of sleep a night. Used to get 5, so that's progress.

[ironwill2008]

If you've recently made radical changes in the way you train, you're going to be sore for a few weeks, until you get re-conditioned. It'll pass.

[kimm4]

How many days a week are you training and how long are your sessions? Any cardio?

If you don't mind me asking, what are your stats? If I had to guess I'm thinking your calories might be too low. They seem low for a male.

[DuracellBunny]

- Eating between 1800-2000 for leaning out.

There's the answer to your question right there. If the trainer is pushing you harder than you were before and you have also cut your calorie intake, then your recovery is going to be worse than before.

Decide what results you want and adjust your diet to enable those results. You can't suddenly drive your car faster whilst using less fuel.

[ntrllftr]

if you've recently made radical changes in the way you train, you're going to be sore for a few weeks, until you get re-conditioned. It'll pass.

qft!

[BazzaW]

How many days a week are you training and how long are your sessions? Any cardio?

If you don't mind me asking, what are your stats? If I had to guess I'm thinking your calories might be too low. They seem low for a male.

I agree with Kimm...if you are doing 60 min sessions with a trainer 3 x per week and they are intense sessions, you are going to be pretty wasted on 2000 cals. Cut it back to 40 min sessions, still go hard and eat some more...;-)

[JC480]

There's the answer to your question right there. If the trainer is pushing you harder than you were before and you have also cut your calorie intake, then your recovery is going to be worse than before.

Decide what results you want and adjust your diet to enable those results. You can't suddenly drive your car faster whilst using less fuel.

No but you burn higher octane!

Other option is to make sure to consume at least 200g of protein per day...your carbs should be MAINLY slow burn long lasting complex carbs like oats, wild rice, quinoa, black beans, sweet potatos, etc.

[Karl_Hungus]

Is this just how it is now as we age?

No, but it is how it is when we haven't trained hard in a long time. You'll get used to it.

But....if you are chronically tired and under-recovered, then you may want to scale your workouts back a bit. Slowly build up your work capacity until you are able to do heavy workouts without it messing you up so bad. Rome wasn't built in a day.

[Bando]

- Lifting M/W/F 60mins each session
- intervals on T/Th/Sa for about 30 mins

Get about 7 hours of sleep a night. Used to get 5, so that's progress.

I'm 42, been training for over 3 years and while this routine would kick my ass I wouldn't be tired all the time. I'm curious what the lifting and interval sessions consist of, if it's like squats monday and burpees tuesday then I would be concerned about not letting a muscle group heal.

[gawain]

I'm 42, been training for over 3 years and while this routine would kick my ass I wouldn't be tired all the time. I'm curious what the lifting and interval sessions consist of, if it's like squats monday and burpees tuesday then I would be concerned about not letting a muscle group heal.

Someone asked for stats: 5'9", 203LBS, 15% or so bodyfat

So here is a typical leg day to give you an idea:

About 10-15 mins of plometrics to warm up the legs
Go right into doing things like leg extensions and leg curls (supersets)
Go from there into various squats and such.
stretch and cool down.

So not too horrible. I'm trying to drop weight (would like to finally get to single percentages), so he has structured the plan to burn calories. We don't do anything super heavy, it's all in the 12-15 range, lots of movement, I sweat a ton. And he doesn't want me doing a ton of extra cardio.